“The heavily corrected manuscript from Austen’s uncompleted novel The Watsons, written in about 1804, fetched £993,250 at Sotheby’s to a round of applause. It had been expected to reach £200,000-£300,000.”
Tag: 07.14.11
British Library Launches Campaign To Buy Europe’s Oldest Book
“A £9m appeal has been launched by the British Library to buy the oldest intact book in Europe, a palm-sized leather-bound copy of the gospels buried 1,300 years ago in the coffin of Saint Cuthbert.”
Improv Powerhouse David Shore Shows Britain How To Make It All Up
“Your standup is the best in the world, but your improv scene is about 25 years behind us. In LA, you can’t meet a single writer or successful actor on a TV show who hasn’t at least taken a class … Every single writer on every show is an improviser. Over here – well, let’s just say you’ve got the talent. But you don’t have the direction.”
Relax, The BBC Proms Aren’t Dumbing Down
Every year there “are dark mutterings that the Proms isn’t as serious as it was, that the Proms in the Parks events and the Comedy Prom and the Horrible Histories Proms are hogging the limelight, and the serious events are being overshadowed. It’s fascinating to see how a series of orchestral concerts has become a focus for all our anxieties about culture.”
Placido Domingo Comes Up Hard On 70
Domingo turned 70 in January: did he imagine the moment quite like this? “It’s quite an event for me,” he responds. “And whatever I imagined, I never thought that I would still be singing. Conducting, yes. But this is a bonus.” Hard to imagine, too, that his tenor record of 130 operatic roles will be topped. “One hundred and thirty-six roles,” he corrects me, courteously.
How The Internet Is Changing The Future Of Photography
The fast-forward momentum of digital technology “changes our sense of what it means to make” and “results in work that feels like play, work that turns old into new, elevates the banal. Work that has a past but feels absolutely present.”
What’s Wrong At Tate Liverpool?
“The Merseyside branch of the Tate has had a run of high-impact successes including its current René Magritte exhibition. Or were they successes at all? The apparently thriving gallery announced this week that it is to shed staff in a comprehensive review of the way it is run. Meanwhile, director Christoph Grunenberg is leaving for a new job in Bremen.”
Not All Art Is Equal. And So…
“In times of crisis it is vital that multi-art form programming remains agile and responsive to the need for change. Each art form must prove its worth, but analysis of value should be based on qualitative concerns rather than the need to generate footfall.”
HBO Cleans Up In Emmy Nominations
“Mildred Pierce,” the period melodrama starring Kate Winslet in the role that Joan Crawford made famous in 1945, earned the most nominations, with a staggering 21 nods including best miniseries, best actress for Winslet, and best director for Todd Haynes. There wasn’t a close second in the nominations.”
Gerard Mortier At His Latest Triumph (What Might Have Been NY)
“But it was a miscalculation to think that when I came, there would suddenly be enormous fund-raising. People in New York don’t know my name, they don’t know me. I don’t know if that’s my fault or their fault. I think it’s their fault. I don’t want to be pretentious, but in some things I know what I am worth. But you know, that’s New York. It’s a world city, and at the same time it’s provincial.”